Links: One Hendricks, Two Goslings, Multiple Albees

Have you seen that Christina Hendricks is the new face of London Fog? Such a delectable woman.

I caught the commercial to the new Katharine Heigl movie Life as We Know It (2010) recently in which Hendricks dies and Heigl, her best friend, turns out to be the "raise my child" choice in the will. The whole time I was watching the short film (I'd say "trailer" but it contains the whole movie. No need to buy a ticket) I kept thinking 'Wait. You're going to tease me with Christina and then make me watch Katharine instead for 2 hours?' And bear in mind, I like the oft-hated Katharine Heigl. Honestly, sometimes Hollywood is really slow on the draw with what the public responds to. People are nuts for Christina Hendricks. Look around the web. Where's her big movie role? It's not like Mad Men doesn't have long hiatuses.

Film Brain Jean Luc Godard's no show letter for a career honor in 1995. Think he'll show up for the Governor's Ball in LA? I don't.
Film Business Asia Monga will represent Taiwan for this year's foreign film Oscar race. Yeah yeah, I know I need to update the pages.
Village Voice fun interview with Edward Albee who has a new play Off Broadway. You have to admire his self regard...

The world would be a better place if theaters were filled with my plays all the time.

because, you know, he's right about that!
Washington Post Bernadette Peters in Sondheim's Follies. Holy ____ Consider my ticket bought.
Guardian Gerard Depardieu doesn't get the fuss over Juliette Binoche
Movie Dearest reviews the first season of Cougar Town
Gawker "Anne Rice Quivers with Delight" at...


Drive in Double marquees for the win!

MNPP who wore it best? confident men in pink bathrobes. Hmmm, I wanted more options. Didn't Grant or Hudson don one, too?
The Wrap Anthony Mackie for MI:4? We keep rooting for him. A big budget action flick probably couldn't hurt.
/Film All Good Things starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling will get a tiny limited December release. All the better to compete directly with Ryan Gosling's other tiny limited December release Blue Valentine. I seriously don't understand movie distributors.
MCI Scott Pilgrim vs. The Matrix
Boing Boing not cinema but this "Tom the Dancing Bug" cartoon about evil fetuses is hilarious especially if, like me, you need to laugh to stop from crying about what's happening in America right now.

Links, Episode #3,002,038

/Film Jamie Bell may have just been cast as the new Spider-Man. Ah, I knew Marc Webb had good taste (with (500) Days of Summer as evidence)
Trespass Magazine Glenn interviews movie poster maestro Jeremy Saunders, who designed this year's fb gold medal winner for poster (Antichrist).
Little Gold Men Sandra Bullock sapphic smooches, part two.
The TV Addict Katharine Heigl's career killer Killers ?


Deviant Art a fan made poster for The Avengers. This movie will have to give blind men back their sight and maybe part oceans to live up to fanboy expectations.
Movie|Line Luke Evans is on "the Verge". He also wants to star in a film version of Miss Saigon so good on him.
Towleroad Apparently Elton John is going to perform at Rush Limbaugh's wedding. Money may be the reason but it's not like Elton needs any more of it. What a traitor. I've only ever bought two Elton John records in my lifetime but now I'm wishing I hadn't given him a lone dime.
OMG "Make Homosexuals Marry" Actors Justin Long & Mike White tie the knot excruciatingly tight in this campaign vid.
Newsweek on Italy Porn Movies like Eat Pray Love and I Am Love

And finally, I really must take a moment to thank all the cinephile angels involved in the Film Preservation Blogathon. Blogs can be a powerful force for good. The funds raised during that blog-a-thon are being used to restore two silent films. The first is a western named The Sergeant (1910) which is an incredible 100 years old.

...one of the earliest surviving narratives shot on location in Yosemite Valley. The one-reeler shows the magnificent terrain prior to the creation of the National Park Service, when U.S. Army cavalry troops kept order, and it is the military presence that provides the backdrop for the story.

The second is from 1912, another western called The Better Man. That blog-a-thon which was hosted by Marilyn Ferdinand and Self Styled Siren is still taking donations so maybe a third film can be saved! It's a worthy cause if you have the cash.

Hollywood's millionaires and its behemoth corporations could do a lot more to preserve old films -- imagine how many silents could be saved if like one single day's profits (or hell even one showing's) from any of those soulless blockbusters were so directed -- but at least we have devoted cinephiles and government funding helping to preserve cinematic history.

Red Carpet: Blood Suckers and Beauties

It's that time again. A random selection of actresses that were out and about last week. You can always interpret "random" to mean: people Nathaniel wants to say something about.

pics reworked from originals at Zimbio and Just Jared

Anna Paquin.
Who knew when she was hyperventilating onstage at the '93 Oscars that she'd make good as an adult star, too? She never found a film role as magical as her debut (The Piano) but her career suddenly has new life, courtesy of the undead (True Blood). And she looks pretty good in a cheongsam too. That Globe win didn't convince Emmy to bite but they've long had a history of ignoring younger actresses (Claire Danes' immortal portrayal of "Angela Chase" didn't win) and snubbing women in genre shows altogether (Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy, Mary McDonnell's President Roslyn... Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully was the exception to the rule). Emmy prefers their women fully matured and working the procedurals as cops, doctors, detectives or lawyers. That's just the way it is.

Jamie Campbell Bower
I loved hearing him sing in Sweeney Todd (even though it did make Depp & Bonham-Carter sound even shakier) but I assumed he'd disappear, the movies not always having suitable employment for 'a mere slip of a girlie boy' (Thank you Hedwig, the ever quotable). But employed he is. He's in the next Twilight film as a glittery bloodsucker and he has a key flashback role in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows two-parter as "Gellert Grindelwald". That's the wizard that Dumbledore was entangled with in his youth (in more ways than one apparently given the posthumous "outing"). Would that Rowling had had the guts to out Dumbledore while the books were still running.

Alfre Woodard
Just didn't want you to forget about her. No movies on horizon. Only one TV film. I would totally watch a series w/ Woodard in the lead role (provided it wasn't a procedural). Who's with me?

Katharine Heigl
She's beautiful and apparently tasty, too ---- >

Though I find Grey's Anatomy insufferable on multiple levels, Heigl's Izzie was the one among the dozens of completely obnoxious characters that I could get into. Not that Izzie wasn't obnoxious. But the performance was good and when performances are good who cares about whether or not the character has a pleasing personality? Heigl's transfer to bigger screens felt effortless too. So I guess I'm a little bit of an admirer if not quite a fan yet. The Ugly Truth will probably be a huge hit when it opens (people love that 'men are from mars / women are from venus' shtick) but the trailer indicates that the plot takes a detour into Cyrano de Bergerac-land with Gerard Butler playing Cyrano to Heigl's Christian as she tries to win her own Roxanne (Eric Winter) and that is beyond ridiculous. Why would KATHERINE HEIGL need help with that?

P.S. Hate the new hair. In my humble opinion only one person alive was ever meant to be equally beautiful with all the hair colors in the world and that person is Linda Evangelista.

Melissa Leo
This is a paparazzi snap from the set of The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg. She's so "Flo" here [Tangent: Diane Ladd is awesome. Discuss]. I bet Melissa smiles this enthusiastically every day in this post Frozen River world. It must feel good to be suddenly in demand at 48. The Fighter is her 11th (11th!) film since the miracle year of 2008. You'll see her in Hilary Swank's Amelia follow-up Betty Anne Waters (more on that here) as well .

Lynn Collins
I'm still trying to erase her complete blandness in X-Men Origins: Wolverine from mind. It's blocking my view of the rest of her career which seems more interesting: True Blood, The Merchant of Venice... "RC" in Bug (points for that). Besides, it's probably not fair to judge anyone solely on Wolverine. Even Hugh Jackman was less than Hugh Jackman, you know? Next up for Lynn: playing busty "Dejah Thoris" in John Carter of Mars. The clothes averse character and the eager actress I've paired to your left. On going naked for Allure, Collins proclaims...

Women with confidence in their bodies are the sexiest thing, so I put on my cape of courage and did it. It was quite liberating!

I know I've mentioned the film a few times already and it doesn't even start filming until 2010 but I used to stare at those Mars book covers a lot as a child. I'm curious about the movie for multiple reasons not the least of which is Pixar's Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and WALL•E) directing live action.
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